Chapter 14

• “I don’t sit, but take my place, kneeling, near the chair with the footstool where Serena Joy will shortly enthrone herself”
• as if I'm a piece of furniture.
• “I would like to steal something from this room. I would like to take some small thing.”
• “It would make me feel that I have power.

  But such a feeling would be an illusion"
• “Household: that is what we are. The Commander is the head of the household. The house is what he holds. To have and to hold, till death do us part. The hold of a ship. Hollow.”
• “He’s so close that the tip of his boot is touching my foot. Is this on purpose?”
• “I look into the man’s eyes, trying to decide what he is thinking. He knows the camera is on him: is the grin a show of defiance, or is it a submission? Is he embarrassed, at having been caught?”
• “What he’s telling us, his level smile implies, is for our own good”
• “Serena Joy’s perfume: Lily of the Valley”
• Even at her age she still feels the urge to wreath herself in flowers. No use for you, [...] you're withered. They're the genital organs of plants.
• “I struggle against him [...] I sway towards him, like one hypnotized. If only it were true. If only I could believe.
• “I tell myself it doesn’t matter, your name is like your telephone number, useful only to others. But what I tell myself is wrong, it does matter”
• "breathing in the smoke that has been inside Serena's body.'
• “That is how I feel: white, flat, thin. I feel transparent.”
• . He’s driving a little too fast now. The adrenaline’s gone to his head. Now he’s singing. Oh what a beautiful morning, he sings. Even his singing worries me. We’ve been warned not to look too happy.”
• “I feel as if there’s not much left of me; they will slip through my arms, as if I’m made of smoke, as if I’m a mirage, fading before their eyes.”
• “We didn’t want to lay upon her the burden of our truth”
• “I know all the details. They are sentimental details but I can’t help that.”
• “It seems to be an unwritten rule in this household: we always get here on time, he’s always late, Serena always lets us watch the news”